My fellow Americans, tonight we gather on what is no doubt another historically cold night in our nation’s capital. But while our bodies may be cold our love for America has never been warmer and the state of our union has never been stronger.

Culbreth is hardly alone in his struggles. In Pennsylvania, nearly 500,000 people remain out of work, and out of those, the Philadelphia Unemployment Project said 87,000 are on long-term unemployment benefits.

The chairs of the House and Senate Budget Committees, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., have announced a budget deal that will set spending levels for the next two years, preempting another government shutdown in January.